[Review] Craigellachie - 10 years old Signatory Vintage for L'Ambassade du Vin 46%

With the growing popularity of whisky, more and more wine and spirits shops decide to bottle their own single malt. By their own, I mean of course casks they have purchased through distilleries thmselves or through independent bottlers. 

This is the case today with a Craigellachie selected by L'Ambassade du Vin in Niort (France) through Signatory Vintage. And looking at the cask reference (306151/part) as well as the number of bottles released (156) I guess this is from a cask share.

Bottle details:

Distilled 23/06/2009

Bottled 08/11/2019

Cask 306151/part

Number of bottles 156

Abv 46%

Colour Pale gold

No mention on the label of filtration or colouring but I would say it is unchillfiltered and natural colour.

My tasting notes

Nose: 

Creamy and fruity, green fruit, pears, apples, vanilla, spicy notes too, slight oak and cashew and pistachio nuts.

Palate: 

Creamy again, almonds, more yellow fruit than green fruit, peach, cereal sweetness and again a little oak spice developing after a while

Finish: 

Barley sweetness, cashew nuts, vanilla, fresh oak and a hint of toasted nuts.

With water: 

The nose is sweeter and less green. There is some yellow/white peach notes in there now and hints of oak char. The palate loses some cereal notes but becomes fruitier too. The finish is still rather creamy, sweet and nutty.

This is a solid dram, nothing over-the-top but a good bourbon cask-matured Craigellachie. It definitely pays off to get off the beaten track when it comes to picking up your next bottle!

Slainte all!